Volume 4 No 2 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

392 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:387ish population lived before emigrating to Israel and elsewhere. 16 This is notnecessarily an indication of philosemitism, however, but simply of a moreacute awareness of the pejorative than in the other Romanian regions.Education seems to play a somewhat significant, but by no means crucial,role, according to the findings of this survey. Differences in the case ofJews for “absolutely inoffensive” are of at most four percentage pointsbetween the higher educated (17.2%) and those with a high school and posthighschool education (21.2%). The education factor is more relevant in thecase of respondents who chose to give the “very offensive” answer: thedifference between graduates of high school and post high schools (31.6%)and the higher educated (23.6%) is a full eight percentage points. Surprisingly,to some extent (but not for those familiar with Romanian history),“intellectuals” (defined as holders of university diplomas for this purpose)seem to be less willing to be aware of the pejorative meaning of jidan(23.6%)—not only less than graduates of high schools, but also graduatesof gymnasiums (10 schooling years) or vocational schools (27.4%), andeven of the lower (up to 8 years) educated (24.5%).The findings of the 2009 IMAS survey relevant for Jews is summarizedin table 3:16. Out of nearly 800,000 Jews, nearly 410,000 had survived the Second WorldWar. By 1961, with Romania’s Jewish population at 225,000, more than half of thesurvivors had emigrated; in 1968, less than half of the latter figure (about 100,000)were still living in the country. For yearly emigration figures to Israel, see RaduIoanid, The Ransom of the Jews: The Story of the Extraordinary Secret Bargainbetween Romania and Israel (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005), 185-6.